as an independent voter that feels continually ignored by the by the right and left

A party in the U.S. of any relevance that could be described as “left-wing” would be news to me.

You’ve got a corrupt conservative party and an extremely corrupt "pro"gressive(regressive?) anti-democratic party.

third parties can be an attractive choice for some

Third parties are never an attractive choice for anyone in a first-past-the-post voting systems with two extremely dominant parties, regardless of what any of those parties stand for. The only sensible choice is the (in your opinion) least bad option that still has a realistic chance of winning.